State law means pothole claims are rarely approved

If you’ve hit a pothole this year and want some cash from the city for the damages, you’re not alone. If you think you have any chance of getting your money back, you’re probably out of luck.

Sean F. Driscoll

If you’ve hit a pothole this year and want some cash from the city for the damages, you’re not alone.

If you think you have any chance of getting your money back, you’re probably out of luck.

The city has received about 300 damage claims from drivers of the city’s pothole-laden streets. It’s investigated about half so far and approved just a handful, City Attorney Kerry Partridge said.

State laws make it nearly impossible for residents to get pothole claims paid.

“It’s almost like a magical amount of things have to come in line for the city to have liability,” Partridge said. “There’s a reason for that -- it’s ... well-established law that’s been around for decades -- we are just not meant to be insurance for traveling on the roadways.”

“We’re taxpayers. We’re citizens here,” said Hubert Keener. The right front wheel of his Oldsmobile Cutlass was damaged when he hit a pothole on North Alpine Road on Feb. 5, he said. He and his wife, Joan, submitted a $110 claim the city rejected.

“I think they should be responsible. They may say it’s an act of God, but how well did they build those streets if it’s got a pothole in it?”

Two lines of defense
The city has two lines of defense against most claims, Partridge said.

The first is the state’s tort immunity law, which states the city must have received notice of the pothole and had a reasonable amount of time to fix it to be liable.

“Reasonable” isn’t defined, Partridge said, leaving it up to the interpretation of the city -- or a judge and jury, if the case heads to court.

The second is the city’s contract with the state to do routine maintenance on state roads. Partridge said the city’s stance this year is since state roads are so poorly maintained, the contract for “routine maintenance” doesn’t extend to the amount of work needed to fix problem roads like North Alpine.

“These roadways are well beyond routine maintenance,” Partridge said. “They’re in need of being rebuilt. ... We feel we’ve met our obligation under the contract.”

State sends money
According to the city’s data, most of the patching has been done on state-owned roads. The state recently cut an $80,000 check to Rockford for emergency repairs to North Alpine between East Riverside Boulevard and Spring Creek Road, which bolsters the city’s position, Partridge said.

“They realized Alpine was well beyond going out there and slapping some cold mix into a hole,” he said. “It’s kind of like patching the craters on the moon. Every few hours, a new hole would open up.”

But the city’s protections are little comfort to residents like Barry Reithmeier. A tie rod on his Mercury Sable was bent about two weeks ago, he said, when he hit a pothole on North Main Street near Greenwood Cemetery.

The family car has been out of commission since then. His wife and two kids can’t cram into his pickup, so family travel has been virtually eliminated, he said.

He’ll eventually pay about $100 to fix the rod himself, but was hoping his wallet would get some help from the city.

“I’m paying insurance and everything else on a vehicle that I can’t really drive more than a few blocks here and there,” he said.

The city’s Street Department has patched about 25 miles of streets since January, with weeks to go before the patching effort is done. Partridge said he expects more claims to pile in, but the city’s position on payment is unlikely to change.

“Even though it is our property, it’s not my money that is paid when we’re paying for a claim,” Partridge said. “It comes out of the taxpayers’ pocket. We’re trying to be good stewards of that money.”

Sean F. Driscoll can be reached at (815) 987-1410 or sdriscoll@rrstar.com.